A Margarator Review

Published On: Friday, October 8, 2010

When I received my Margarator in the mail, I ripped open the large box with excitement. I had tried making frozen margaritas and daiquiris in my blender before, and it just never worked well. I couldn’t wait to try the machine for myself and write a Margarator review.

The machine itself was quite large, though the unit that holds the drink was slightly smaller than I expected. I read the instructions top to bottom, which were quite clear about how to operate the machine. The instructions discuss certain steps of assembly that seemed complicated, but fortunately, had already been done. I did not have to worry about assembling a plastic collar and metal grinding cage and securing them with screws, and I was glad for that! Though I wasn’t sure why it was included in the instructions if that part of assembly wasn’t necessary.

I went to the liquor store and found a margarita-making pack; it had a bottle of Sauza Gold tequila in addition to a bottle of Sauza margarita mix. Together, they cost only $16.99 – not bad! The only issue was that the bottle of margarita mix (in addition to every other mix offered at the liquor store) only came in 1 liter bottles, and the Margarator instructions call for a 1.75 liter bottle of mix. I also bought a big bag of ice since the recipes call for around three pounds of ice.

Connecting the top and bottom unit was very easy – they just locked right into place. Because I was using just1 liter of margarita mix, I eyeballed how much tequila I needed. I put in a decent amount of ice, though I didn’t quite go up to the fill line since I wasn’t making the full recipe. I secured the lid on top by lining up the white dot and lifting up the portable handle to lock it.

I connected the AC cord to the machine on one end and into the electric outlet on the other end. I flipped the switch on to AC and it began to work. It was quite loud as it ground away at the ice. The Margarator instructions said to check on the consistency after six to eight minutes. I did, and it was frothy but still had tons of big chunks of ice in it.

I closed the machine and ran it again for another few minutes. I opened the lid and it was still very chunky. I kept running it again and again, and was surprised how much longer it was taking than the instructions said. Finally, the contents seemed to be devoid of ice chunks. Upon stirring and letting it sit for a moment, I noticed that the contents at the top of the unit became very much like a frozen margarita, and that on the bottom was still very liquid. It was now clear why the instructions said the machine needs to be on while dispensing – that way you get an even mixture of textures.

At this point I turned the machine back on and dispensed the drink into my cup, which was very easy to do. While the margarita was very cold and quite tasty, it was not “frozen” and icy like I expected – it was more like very cold liquid. There were also a few small ice chunks in the drink, which was a little disappointing. Also, the spout began leaking at one point and I had to place a cup under the spout to catch the droppings, though it leaking stop after I dispensed another drink.

The friends I shared the drinks with said they were disappointed and did not think I should write a positive Margarator review. However, the machine did almost completely grind the ice and produce a liquid, which is more than my home blender can do – my blender can barely crush ice. I also wonder if the drinks would have been better had I done the recipe correctly.

So what’s the conclusion of my Margarator review? The machine wasn’t of great quality – the drinks were not perfect and took a while to get the right consistency. But it’s important to remember that the Margarator is the cheapest type of home margarita makers, so it is not completely surprising. There are many other types of home margarita makers that cost more but are made of much better quality and can produce drinks closer to restaurant quality. If you don’t want to spend much on a margarita machine and just want something cheap and easy to make large amounts of drinks from time to time, a Margarator will be just fine. But if you do want something that makes drinks much closer to restaurant quality, I do suggest spending a little more money on a nicer model.